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Gensler
Gensler is the world's largest architectural firm, with projects on every continent, although its biggest news of the last year came from Asia and North America.
Woods Bagot
H Arquitectes
It might be a surprise to find H Arquitectes in the top 100, but the Spanish office has had a couple of big hits in recent months.
Nook Architects
Nook Architects has become the go-to studio for the renovation of historic Barcelona apartments and houses, thanks to a sensitive approach to restoring original details, combined with an enthusiasm for colour and pattern.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Haptic
London- and Oslo-based Haptic has been slowly establishing its reputation since launching in 2009, but there was one project in particular that raised its profile last year – a proposal for contemporary properties in a conservation area in London's Chelsea. It was a huge hit with Dezeen readers, partly due to the
Alejandro Aravena/Elemental
Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena was relatively unknown until this year, when he achieved the double whammy of winning the Pritzker Prize and curating the Venice Architecture Biennale.
David Chipperfield
London architect David Chipperfield can do no wrong in the eyes of our readers. His quietly austere brand of modernism doesn't scream for attention, yet avoids being formulaic.
Sou Fujimoto
Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto is best known for the ethereal and ephemeral Serpentine Gallery Pavilion he built in 2013. This year he created an even more intangible installation for fashion brand COS that was literally smoke and mirrors – and light.
Lacaton & Vassal
MVRDV
Dutch studio MVRDV would have been placed highly in our Hot List under any circumstances – but its high ranking this year is due to the extraordinary popularity of its recent Chanel store facade in Amsterdam, which is made of glass bricks.
MIMA Housing
Rem Koolhaas/OMA
Rem Koolhaas and his architecture firm OMA might easily have been two separate entries in our Hot List (his consultancy AMO could have been a third, but didn't get enough search traffic to make the cut).
SANAA
Like Peter Zumthor, Japanese duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA enjoy a cult-like status in the architecture world. And like Zumthor, they are publicity shy and haven't built as prolifically as some of their famous peers.
Jonathan Tuckey
Grimshaw
Competition wins and ambitious proposals helped cement a top-100 Hot List ranking for Nicholas Grimshaw's London firm.
Studio Mumbai
Marcio Kogan/Studio MK27
Studio MK27 is the Brazilian firm led by Marcio Kogan, an architect who started his career as a movie director.
Tadao Ando
Tadao Ando is the fourth Japanese architect in our overall top 20, and with design studio Nendo at number 20, this makes Japan the leading country for design talent in our Hot List.
Santiago Calatrava
The past year has been a roller coaster of highs and lows for Santiago Calatrava, the architect Dezeen readers tend to either love or hate.
Peter Zumthor
Swiss architect Peter Zumthor is an enigma: he runs a small firm, rarely gives interviews, doesn't build much and doesn't even have a website. He's one of the people we've written about the least – only 28 stories, the lowest of any entrant in our top 10.
Zaha Hadid
Our first ever Dezeen Hot List is headed by an architect we lost this year. But the sad passing of Zaha Hadid was the most talked-about topic in architecture and design over the past 12 months and places the late architect at the top of our list.